340. DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



DISEASES OF MUSCLES AND TENDONS. 

 SPRAINS. 



This term expresses a more or less complete laceration or yielding 

 of the fibers of the muscles, tendons, or the sheaths surrounding and 

 supporting them. The usual cause of a sprain is external violence, 

 such as a fall or a powerful exertion of strength, with following 

 symptoms of soreness, heat, swelling, and a suspension of function. 

 Their termination varies from simple resolution to suppuration, and 

 commonly fibrinous exudation difficult to remove. None of the 

 muscles or tendons of the body are exempt from liability to this 

 lesion, though naturally from their uses and the exposure of their 

 situation the extremities are more liable than other regions to become 

 their seat. The nature of the prognosis will be determined by a 

 consideration of the seat of the injury and the complications likely 

 to arise. 



'Treatment. — The treatment will resolve itself into the routine of 

 local applications, including warm fomentations, stimulating lini- 

 ments, counterirritation by blistering, and in some cases even firing. 

 Rest, in the stable or in a box stall, will be of advantage by promoting 

 the absorption of whatever fibrinous exudation may have formed, or 

 absorption may be stimulated by the careful and persevering applica- 

 tion of iodine in the form of ointments of various degrees of strength. 



There are many conditions in which not only the muscular and ten- 

 dinous structures proper are affected by a strain, but, by contiguity of 

 parts, the periosteum of neighboring bones may become involved, 

 with a complication of periostitis and its sequelae. 



LAMENESS OF THE SHOULDER. 



The fi-equency of the occurrence of lameness in the shoulder from 

 sprains entitles it to precedence of mention in the present category. 

 For, though so well covered with its muscular envelope, it is often 

 the seat of injuries which, from the complex structure of the region, 

 become difficult to diagnosticate with satisfactory precision and 

 facility. The flat bone which forms the skeleton of that region is 

 articulated in a com^Daratively loose manner with the bone of the arm, 

 but the joint is, notwithstanding, rather solid, and is powerfully 

 strengthened by tendons passing outside, inside, and in front of it. 

 Still, shoulder lameness or sprain may exist, originating in lacera- 

 tions of the muscles, the tendons or the ligaments of the joint, or 

 perhaps in diseases of the bones themselves. " Slip of the shoulder " 

 is a phrase frequently applied to such lesions. 



The identification of the particular structures involved in these 

 lesions is of much importance, in view of its bearing upon the ques- 

 tion of prognosis. For example, while a simple superficial injury of 

 the spinatus muscles, or of the muscles by which the leg is attached to 



